This present invention relates to wireless networks. More particularly, the invention relates to detecting fraud in the use of wireless network services.
As the use of mobile wireless terminals in wireless networks increases, a serious challenge confronting wireless network service providers is reducing, and even eliminating, fraudulent access of intruders and imposters to wireless network services as well as their unauthorized use of the wireless network services. Fraudulent access to network services may occur as a result of theft and subsequent illegal use of one of the following: i) a mobile wireless terminal (which will be referred to as a “terminal” henceforth) that belongs to an authorized subscriber of their respective wireless network services, ii) a subscriber's user identification module (UIM), which may be a detachable security device without which a terminal may not be activated or connected to a network, or iii) a subscriber's security association (SA), which is an index to the abstraction of the details of the subscriber security scheme that may be placed in packets transferring a subscriber's data across the network. Such fraudulent access to network services may result in the loss of significant revenue for wireless network service providers as well as financial loss and personal inconvenience for individual users who are the victims of such fraud.
Currently, a subscriber who no longer has her terminal or UIM in her possession, as a result of, for example, theft, accident or even carelessness, may simply report the loss of the terminal or UIM to the wireless network service provider to which she subscribes, and then wireless network service provider may revoke or even terminate terminal access to the wireless network or inhibit registration or connection to the wireless network by the UIM to avoid inadvertent or fraudulent use of the wireless network services by someone other than the subscriber to the wireless network or appropriate user of the terminal. However, since the subscriber may be otherwise preoccupied, or even in view of the increasingly reduced size of terminals and the detachable nature of UIMs, the absence of a terminal or UIM from a subscriber's possession may not be noticed or detected until after a significant amount of fraudulent or otherwise unauthorized use of the terminal or UIM by an unauthorized user has occurred. Moreover, a subscriber may not be aware of the theft of her SA with the network through an intruder's electronic eavesdropping on the wireless channel. In such cases, the subscriber to the wireless network may be unaware that her terminal or UIM or SA has been used for fraudulent or otherwise inappropriate access to the wireless network services until she receives an invoice from the wireless network service provider that includes a detailed record of access to the wireless network services by her terminal or UIM, which may result in significant charges.
Thus, there is a need for a system and technique that protect wireless network service providers from the financial loss that result from the fraudulent or otherwise unauthorized access to and use of wireless network services, as well as protecting the subscribers of the mobile wireless network services from the financial loss and personal inconvenience that further result from such fraudulent or otherwise unauthorized use thereof.